Interview: Markus Schümmelfeder, CIO, Boehringer Ingelheim
Markus Schümmelfeder has spent greater than a decade in search of methods to assist biopharmaceutical large Boehringer Ingelheim exploit digital and information. He joined the corporate in February 2014 as company vice-president in IT and have become CIO in April 2018.
“It was a pure evolution,” he says. “Over time, you see what could be performed as a CIO and have an ambition to make issues occur. This job alternative got here round and it was when digitisation started. I noticed many potentialities arising that weren’t there earlier than.”
Schümmelfeder says the chance to turn into CIO was terrific timing: “It was an opportunity to convey expertise into the corporate, to make extra use of knowledge, and evolve the IT organisation from being a service deliverer into an actual enabler. My intention for all of the years I’ve been with Boehringer is to combine IT into the enterprise group.”
Now, as the corporate’s 54,000 staff use extra information than ever earlier than throughout the worth chain, together with analysis, manufacturing, advertising and marketing and gross sales, Schuemmelfeder’s intention is being realised. He says professionals throughout the enterprise perceive expertise is essential to efficient operational processes: “It’s about bringing us shut collectively to make magic occur.”
Establishing the imaginative and prescient
Schümmelfeder says one among his key achievements since changing into CIO is main the corporate on a knowledge journey. His imaginative and prescient supported the corporate’s progress alongside this pathway.
“I went to the board and mentioned, ‘That is what we should always do, what we wish to do, what is sensible, and what we understand will probably be needed for the longer term’,” he says. “We began that course of roughly 5 years in the past and everybody is aware of how essential information is at present.”
Making the transition to a data-enabled organisation is much from easy. Reasonably than being targeted on creating experiences, Schümmelfeder says his imaginative and prescient aimed to point out individuals throughout the organisation how they may exploit info property successfully. One of many key tenets for achievement has been standardisation.
“It is a elementary drive, and the workforce has performed good work right here,” he says. “10 years in the past, we had between 4,500 and 5,000 programs throughout the organisation. At this time, we now have under 1,000. So, we diminished our footprint by 80%, which is a superb accomplishment.”
Standardisation has allowed the IT workforce to ship one other a part of Schümmelfeder’s imaginative and prescient – a platform-based method to digitisation. Reasonably than investing in level options to resolve particular enterprise challenges, the platform method makes use of cloud-based companies to assist individuals “leap begin subjects” because the enterprise want arises.
The essential technological basis for this shift to standardisation has been the cloud, significantly Amazon Net Companies (AWS), Microsoft Azure and a variety of consolidated enterprise companies, equivalent to Pink Hat OpenShift, Kubernetes, Atlassian Jira and Confluence, Databricks, and Snowflake. Schümmelfeder says the consequence is a versatile, scalable IT useful resource throughout all enterprise actions.
“You possibly can create a cloud atmosphere in minutes,” he says. “You possibly can have an automatic check atmosphere that’s straight connected and able to use. You possibly can create APIs instantly on the platform. We would like individuals to ship options at a sooner tempo, slightly than creating particular person options many times.”
Constructing a platform
Boehringer just lately introduced the launch of its One Medication Platform, powered by the Veeva Improvement Cloud. The unified platform combines information and processes, enabling Boehringer to streamline its product improvement. Schümmelfeder says the expertise performs a vital enabling function.
The One Medication Platform is built-in with Boehringer’s information ecosystem, Dataland, which helps staff make data-driven choices that increase organisational efficiency. Dataland has been working since 2022. The ecosystem collates information from throughout the corporate and makes it accessible securely for professionals to run simulations and information analyses.
“Within the analysis and improvement area for medication, there was nothing like a stable enterprise platform,” says Schümmelfeder, referring to his firm’s relationship with Veeva. “We had about 50, perhaps much more, instruments that have been usually not interconnected. When you wished to duplicate information from one service to a different, you’d must obtain the info, copy and paste, and so forth. That method is tedious.”
The One Medication Platform permits Boehringer to attach information throughout features, optimise trial effectivity round its analysis websites, and speed up the supply of recent medicines to deal with at the moment incurable illnesses. Schümmelfeder says the Veeva expertise offers the enterprise the sting it requires.
“We noticed we have been slower than our opponents in executing scientific trials. We thought we may very well be a lot better. We wished to search for a brand new approach of executing scientific trials, and we would have liked to debate our processes and probably redefine and alter them based mostly on the platform method,” he says. “We selected Veeva as a result of it was probably the most succesful expertise to assist us ship the spirit of a platform. It’s additionally an evolving expertise with good future potential.”
Embracing information innovation
Schümmelfeder says the info platform he’s pioneered helps Boehringer discover rising applied sciences. One key aspect is Apollo, a specialist method to synthetic intelligence (AI), permitting staff to pick from 40 massive language fashions (LLMs) to discover their use circumstances and exploit information safely.
He says this huge variety of LLMs permits Boehringer staff to pick the most effective mannequin for a particular use case. Alongside mainstream fashions like Google Gemini and Open AI’s ChatGPT, the corporate makes use of area of interest fashions devoted to analysis that may ship extra applicable solutions than normal fashions.
Schümmelfeder says Boehringer doesn’t develop fashions internally. He says the fast tempo of AI improvement makes it extra smart to dedicate IT assets to different areas. The corporate’s workers can use authorized fashions and instruments to undertake data-led analysis in a number of key areas: “Now we have a toolbox workers can dip into once they realise an concept or use case.”
He outlines three particular AI-enabled use circumstances: Genomic Lens generates new insights that allow scientists to find new illness mechanisms in human DNA; the corporate makes use of algorithms and historic information to determine the best populations for scientific trials rapidly and successfully; and Sensible Course of Improvement, which applies machine studying and genetic algorithms to create productiveness boosts in biopharmaceutical processes.
“My intention for all of the years I’ve been with Boehringer is to combine IT into the enterprise group”
Markus Schümmelfeder, Boehringer Ingelheim
One other key space of analysis and improvement is assessing the potential energy of quantum computing. Schümmelfeder suggests Boehringer has one of many strongest quantum groups in Europe. He recognises that different digital and enterprise leaders would possibly really feel the corporate’s dedication is forward of the adoption curve.
“And I’d say, ‘Sure, you’re proper’, however then you’ll want to perceive how this expertise works. We’re serving to to make breakthroughs, to convey code to the trade and to find how we are going to use quantum. So, we now have a powerful workforce that brings quite a bit to the desk to assist this space evolve,” he says.
“I’m satisfied quantum computing will probably be an enormous gamechanger for the pharma trade as soon as the expertise can be utilized and set into operations. That scenario is why I imagine it’s a must to be concerned in quantum early to grasp the way it works. It is advisable to convey data into the organisation and be a part of making quantum work.”
Whereas Schümmelfeder acknowledges Boehringer isn’t pursuing true quantum analysis but, the corporate has constructed relationships with different expertise specialists, equivalent to Google Analysis. He says these developments are the foundations for future success in key areas, equivalent to understanding product toxicity: “It’s comparatively early, however you’ll be able to see the funding. I hope we will see the primary actual use circumstances by the top of this decade.”
Creating an affect
Schümmelfeder considers the kind of data-enabled organisation he’d prefer to create throughout the subsequent few years and suggests the excellent news is that the technological foundations for additional transformation at the moment are in place.
“We don’t want a expertise revolution, I believe we’ve performed that,” he says. “We’ve performed our homework, and we’ve standardised and harmonised. The subsequent stage isn’t about extra standardisation, it’s extra about wanting particularly at the place we should be profitable. That focus is on analysis and improvement, medication, our end-customers and learn how to enhance the lives of sufferers and animals. That work is on the core of what we wish to do.”
With the expertise programs and companies in place, Schümmelfeder says he’ll think about making certain the best tradition exists to take advantage of digitisation. That focus would require a concerted effort to evolve the abilities throughout the organisation. The intention right here will probably be to make sure many individuals in all elements of the enterprise have the best capabilities.
“If you discuss information, you don’t want 10 individuals capable of do issues, you want 1000’s of people that can execute,” he says. “It is advisable to convey this information to the enterprise. Meaning enterprise and IT should combine deeply to make issues occur. The IT workforce has to go to the enterprise group and ask massive questions like, ‘What do you want? Inform me the one factor that may make you really profitable?’”
Schümmelfeder says that discovering the solutions to those questions shouldn’t be easy. Typically, he expects the search to be uncomfortable. IT can’t sit again – the corporate’s 2,000 expertise professionals should drive the identification of digital options to enterprise issues. Line-of-business professionals should additionally really feel comfy and assured utilizing rising applied sciences and information.
He says the corporate’s Knowledge X Academy performs a vital function. Boehringer labored with Capgemini to develop this in-house information science coaching academy. Knowledge X Academy has already skilled 4,000 individuals throughout IT and the enterprise. Schümmelfeder hopes this quantity will attain 15,000 individuals throughout the subsequent 24 months and permit data-savvy individuals throughout the organisation to work collectively to develop options to intractable challenges.
“We wish to ask the best questions on the enterprise aspect and create lighthouse use circumstances in IT that present individuals what we will do,” he says. “We are able to drive change along with the enterprise and create an affect for the organisation, our clients and sufferers.”
